Exposing New Products at Expo West
Each year in March and October, the natural foods community gathers for a trade show that is known in the industry simply as "Expo." And that's good news for you, because it means that new products and excellent new prices will hit the shelves soon.
Expo is basically a huge, slightly more organized Turkish bazaar where more than 1,700 product manufacturers trot out their new items and flavors and try to persuade retailers like Sprouts to buy them; and where retailers like Sprouts try to negotiate new prices with the manufacturers in order to create better deals for customers like you.
As recently as 15 years ago, this was still a rather intimate affair. There weren't that many people in the industry, so everyone knew everyone. It wasn't uncommon to have the president of some cereal company staffing his own booth, scooping out samples of organic whole grain something-or-others, effusively thanking the retailers for increasing their purchases from a few cases per order to a few pallets per order.
Today, the natural products industry is mammoth — a $68 billion a year business (in 2011) that accounts for about 12% of all retail grocery sales. To put that in perspective, that's about the same size as the entire motion picture and video business ($72 billion in 2007). And it dwarfs all US spectator sports, which form a combined $31 billion industry. Many of the big boys in the food industry, like Kellogg's and Kraft and Archer Daniels Midland, are now deeply involved in natural foods. And those purchases from the cereal company? They have gone from pallets to truckloads.
Still, there remains something charming and entrepreneurial about the natural products industry. So when our team of buyers descends on the Anaheim Convention Center for Expo West, we just don't know what we might find. Organic Maple Pecan Granola Bars? (yum) Zinc-based Mouthwash? (interesting...) Soy Caviar? (really?)
Rest assured, whatever treasures we unearth and whatever deals we concoct, you'll be hearing about them in a few more weeks....
From the March, 2010 edition of Fresh Off the Press
